Scala Venue
Gig played on Thu 17th July
Venue: Scala, London
"Was my label showing?" asks a shiny, happy Sian Evans as a roadie scurries into the wings. "That's what you get if you make it to your second album - someone to pull your pants up."
The last time your reporter saw Kosheen live was at Camden's Jazz Cafe, back when they were on the cusp of success, being hyped senseless, heaped in expectation.
It's now two years since the 500,000 plus-selling 'Resist' appeared, and Kosheen are approaching the commercial crux point for their second LP, breaking new material in a series of UK gigs.
They've always been a self-consciously contradictory proposition - dark breaks and basslines mixed with acoustic guitar and sweet vocals, framed by traditional song structures and pastoral imagery (like the stag on their last album cover and the American Indians on the new one).
They're the band that finally gave drum and bass its chance to go pop… and were promptly disowned by the 'real' drum and bass heads. Whatever your thoughts on Kosheen's genre cocktail, you can't help but admire their craft.
Tonight, for the capacity crowd at Scala in Kings Cross, Kosheen are in fine spirits. Sian has a shorter, funkier haircut to top her trademark flowing black dress and looks radiant, very much the seasoned frontperson, making everyone in the crowd think she's singing to them. Her voice, as usual, is breathtaking.
Markee Substance has grown his hair out a bit, softened his look to Madchester guitar rocker, and looks all the better for it. Darren Decoder is, well, exactly the same thousand yard staresman he was before, but you get the feeling Darren Decoder will look like that when he's eighty (although he might change his surname back to Beale).
He's the Adam Clayton of the Kosheen world. A live drummer and becapped computer gentleman join the core three on stage.
In just over an hour the band power through a mix of old and new tunes, every one crisply performed and received with wild applause. On this evidence, Kosheen's new album 'Kokopelli' (out August 12th) is closer to a soundclash of Avril and Portishead than it is to fellow Bristolian Roni Size.
Heavy, half pace guitars, fat breaks and gothic lighting dominate the set, although new single 'All In My Head' is more uplifting, and gets a clamorous response. Still, the big older tunes like 'Catch', '(Slip & Slide) Suicide', 'Pride', 'Hungry', 'Empty Skies' and 'I Want It All' get the biggest cheers; and when the stabs of anthem 'Hide U' peal out the whole Scala starts to bounce, balconies and all.
The final encore is interesting - a new downbeat effort that has rings of Jesus Jones' 'Welcome Back Victoria'. And as a sweet closing touch, Sian strolls out afterwards to meet her fans - the kids who were singing along to every lyric in the set - and makes their night with photo ops, handshakes, autographs and smiles.
Who else, you may wonder, could make a tune about suicide sound so cheerful?
